1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of high-voltage equipment as well as a high-voltage connector for safely conducting maintenance and inspection of the high-voltage equipment mounted on an electric vehicle. In particular, the present invention relates to a structure of high-voltage equipment and a high-voltage connector with which a high-voltage power supply can mechanically and electrically be shut off to allow maintenance and inspection to be conducted.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional electric vehicle is structured by placing a circuit-breaker unit and high-voltage equipment in a space isolated from a passenger compartment and a trunk and covering the space with a maintenance lid to hold the circuit-breaker unit and the high-voltage equipment within the closed space. For maintenance and inspection of the high-voltage equipment, sufficient safety measures for ensuring safety are indispensable. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 7-212903 discloses a structure of an electric vehicle for which maintenance and inspection can safely be conducted even if a maintenance worker forgets to turn off the breaker switch.
The disclosed vehicle structure includes a housing which holds high-voltage equipment driven by a high-voltage power supply, a maintenance lid covering the housing, an open/close sensor detecting that the maintenance lid is opened/closed, a circuit-breaker unit controlling supply and shutoff of a high-voltage electric power, and a control circuit controlling the circuit-breaker unit in such a way that supply of the high-voltage electric power to the high-voltage equipment is shut off based on a signal indicating a result of the detection by the open/close sensor.
The above vehicle structure has the open/close sensor detecting opening/closing of the maintenance lid to shut off, when the maintenance lid is removed, the supply of a high-voltage electric power to the high-voltage equipment by means of the circuit-breaker unit based on the sensor signal. Accordingly, when maintenance and inspection of the high-voltage equipment is conducted, the supply of the high-voltage electric power is automatically stopped to allow the maintenance and inspection work to safely be performed.
The disclosed vehicle structure described above, however, has the following problem. A PCU (Power Control Unit) mounted on the electric vehicle is a unit including such high-voltage equipment as inverter and converter and being held in a housing. The high-voltage equipment like the inverter and the converter has a high-voltage connector to which a power cable is connected. The high-voltage connector can be detached without opening the maintenance lid which covers the housing. Then, when the high-voltage connector is detached, it could occur that the circuit-breaker unit does not stop the supply of the high-voltage electric power and thus the high-voltage electric power is still being supplied. At this time, the high-voltage connector is detached with the energized state maintained. In such a case, it is necessary that sufficient safety from a high voltage is ensured for an operator conducting maintenance and inspection.